Female Characters In How To Get Away With Murder
One show that I absolutely love and watch religiously is How to Get Away with Murder. I feel that How to Get Away with Murder is soaked in developed, strong, multifaceted female characters, and it is wonderful. The genre of the show is considering legal murder mystery which is typically a male-dominated area in the entertainment industry. While we all usually see only the occasional female romantic interest or female victims within these types of shows, How to Get Away with Murder has female legal professionals, female murderers, and female law students in the show. In the book Gender and the Media Gill talks about Masculinities and media studies on page 29 talking about how men dominate the media industry. So, this show that is a woman in
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the male-dominated law industry and also being African American in the white-dominated law industry seemed intriguing to me.
On top of having a solid female cast, How to Get Away with Murder goes a step further and actually develops the female characters.
So often we have women on TV who are never given as much history and depth as their male counterparts, and if they are, it's usually only in relation to their status as love interest/sex toy. In this series, we see multiple women gave interesting back stories and multi-faceted personalities that portray these women as actual people. In How to Get Away with Murder race is irrelevant, everyone will get what they deserve regardless race or sexual preference. In the real world, that rarely happens, so the creator of the show Shonda Rhymes tries to point that out at every chance she gets.
Within gender, in pop culture, we have been learning that females and especially black females have not been represented within the media very well. Within our text, I can connect back to "Reality Bites Back" where they talk about how "The Genesis of Reality TV Racism" and "The Mammy." Within "Gender and the Media" there are chapters that speak on about Masculinities and media studies and gender reversals. You can see this in How to Get Away with Murder because this is a male-dominated field of work and the reversal into a woman and the black dominated show definitely comes off strong on the television
show.
One of my favorite things that this show does well on is that it has a very diverse cast every season. About half if not more of the main characters within the television show are people of color. This is more than most of the prime time shows that you see on television today. Every one of the characters in How to Get Away with Murder is complex, unique, and has incredible depth, which is also very stimulating to see these days. The first main character that I want to focus on is Annalise Keating who is played by the very talented Viola Davis.
Annalise Keating is one of the most powerful and refreshing characters I have seen on television to this day. Annalise Keating is completely brutal, and I love watching absolutely every minute of what she does in the show. She's scheming and does literally whatever it takes to win her cases, and this is why she is the best. It's really incredible to see a woman, be basically the best defense lawyer in the business. The show shows her at her best and at her worst.
Annalise Keating is a complete mess at some points within the show. As the viewers, we are able to see her in her at best moments and in her worst, and that isn't something you can say just about any main character in many television shows nowadays. The main characters are most often in a moral high ground over everyone else. They are good, they are honorable, and they do all the things that are perceived as "being a good person" in this modern society. Just taking a look at American comic books, you will find many more superhero's as main characters than villains or anti-heroes. There weren't too many women role models out there today. A big one in comics and new on tv is Wonder Woman. Yes, there were Super Girl and Cat Women, but I personally feel like they were just there to be there. Wonder Women was the true feminist superhero. Within Feminism and Pop Culture reading there is a section that talks about how "girls needed a positive female role model to counter the comic book status quo of violent masculinity" (Feminism and Pop Culture pg. 77) I see this connection in How to Get Away with Murder character Annalise Keating. She is a colored female in a white male dominated the field of work. Even with all her flaws I personally feel like she is a great role model for women. She is seen as a powerful being that still has her own flaws in life which we all do.
Another quick factor that I loved about Annalise Keating was that she was reviled as bisexual within the second season. The show writers never mentioned this little fact until Keating's former girlfriend and classmate reappeared. Until that point, everyone was assuming that she was straight just because she was married to a man during the first season. I think it was a great twist on heteronormativity for shows these days. Annalise Keating is tough, unforgiving and displays most traits that are traditionally considered to be masculine, but she is also incredibly vulnerable.
In my reading of Remixing Old Character Tropes on Screen there was a quote that the author used from a different book that stated "Here's the thing, we're in crisis mode as black actresses, not only in the sheer number of roles that are offered and that are out there but the quality of the roles, the quality. And therein lies the problem... -Viola Davis (Oprah's Next Chapter, 2013(Remixing Old Character Tropes on Screen pg. 40) I found this interesting because Viola Davis speaks about how the good roles are pretty scarce for African American women, and how this causes friction and competition within the community. The issue of age also comes up where there are not that many age categories for black women to be able to categorize themselves. "Black women who look a certain way and who are over a certain age are type-cast as mammies and "black ladies," which are the "controlling images" Patricia Hill Collins defines throughout her work on black feminist thought." (Remixing Old Character Tropes on Screen pg. 41) The mammy roll has been talked about within out text Reality Bites Back. In the chapter Erasing, Ethnicity, Encoding Bigotry there is a definition of what a mammy is. "The "mammy" archetype, in which Black women play fawning domestic servants, cooks, and surrogate mothers for white people, originating in minstrel theater but has haunted Black women in American media." (Reality Bites Back pg. 172) These are the roles that Viola Davis is talking about that are available for African American woman. This is why we never see African American women in influential main character roles on television.
My next character from How to Get Away with Murder will be Michael Pratt played by Aja Naomi King. Michaela Pratt is an interesting character in the big part because she's not the kind of character we really want to relate to. Annalise Keating is a basically a boss bitch and Laurel Castillo gets a lot of epic moments throughout the show as well, and even Bonnie and Rebecca get to have their interesting moments throughout the show. Michaela Pratt, on the other hand, is an awkward combination of uptight, bitchy, and status-conscious that basically none of us that watch the show want to admit that we identify with her. Michaela Pratt is uncomfortably real in everyone's eyes.
Michaela Pratt's journey throughout the seasons is important because it is a reminder that black femininity is essentially not regularly allowed the luxury of self-expression. Michaela Pratt is forced at the start of the show by social expressions. Either she's a respectable, proper, perfect, young educated black woman who does not do absolutely anything wrong, or she's a slut, a whore, and ghetto trash from the south. For Michaela Pratt in the very beginning of the show, there's basically no other option for her. Michaela Pratt is clearly one of the most emotionally unstable characters out of the group. Her responses to her and her classmates covering up of Annalise Keating husband Sam Keating's murder as well as when she is always stressing out about not having time to study for exams. Bonnie Winterbottom and Frank Delfino call her a "shooting star." They are implying that she will be the one in the group to fizzle out under the pressure of keeping the secrets. She is always laughed at by her colleagues for behaving so emotionally. She is rebuked for behaving "like a woman should."
Within the book, Reality Bites Back there is a section called "Uppity Black Girls Need Humble Pie." Throughout this section of the book, it states that Yaya an Americas Next Top Model candidate is almost the same character as Michaela Pratt. She is intelligent and beautiful and poised just like Michaela Pratt, but during her season he was portrayed as a "Bourgie Snob." (Reality Bites Back pg. 203) This is how Michaela Pratt is basically portrayed on her show How to Get Away with Murder. She is seen as a girl that checks all the boxes and comes from a wealthy family and has money. With this attitude that she puts out as being high-class, it comes off more as "uppity." This is mainly her character the first season where she is readjusting to real life. In the book Reality Bites Back they say that "When a smart, self-possessed African American woman is said to "need humble pie," the message is that this "uppity" Black person just does not know her place." (Reality Bites Back pg. 204)
One of my favorite moments of Michaela Pratt is when she is having a lunch with her former gay fiancé's mother who does not like her and thinks that she is a gold digger. I think that Michaela Pratt had enough with her former fiancé's mother hating her that she finally snapped and said this which is what I translated from the episode. "I am that girl. The one that tried to slap you from the backwater bayou, that Southern ghetto trash. I just spent a long time trying to hide her away, so I could claim the prince. Your shining black perfect son. A prince. And I did. But that girl isn't me... I'm sorry. He doesn't love me. But here's the thing: I love me. So, I'm done." (How to Get Away with Murder Season 1) This is a moment that I cherished not only just because it is essentially the first time during the whole season that we see Michaela Pratt stepping into her power role as a character. The power in this scene comes after she finally drops her mask and shows who she really is. She's not pretending to be anything other than what she really is in this scene.
Throughout this research, there is a major difference in the two main African American characters within How to Get Away with Murder. Annalise Keating is a strong Black woman and will always fight for her clients. I feel like she grows as a person throughout the season learning from the Keating Five and his coworkers. She is strong and tackles her drinking problem and with the help of her friends and grows as a great character. I think that her role as this powerful lawyer is a great role model for African American females, the television show shows us that she is great at her job but that it is okay to have a vulnerable side in life because we are all human. The show shows us that being an African American woman is hard in a white-dominated world. With Michaela Pratt, you see a stuck-up girl that is trying to make a name for herself. This changes throughout the seasons when she grows out of her façade of a high-class girl and shows that her inner beauty is way more important than her outer beauty.
the male-dominated law industry and also being African American in the white-dominated law industry seemed intriguing to me.
On top of having a solid female cast, How to Get Away with Murder goes a step further and actually develops the female characters.
So often we have women on TV who are never given as much history and depth as their male counterparts, and if they are, it's usually only in relation to their status as love interest/sex toy. In this series, we see multiple women gave interesting back stories and multi-faceted personalities that portray these women as actual people. In How to Get Away with Murder race is irrelevant, everyone will get what they deserve regardless race or sexual preference. In the real world, that rarely happens, so the creator of the show Shonda Rhymes tries to point that out at every chance she gets.
Within gender, in pop culture, we have been learning that females and especially black females have not been represented within the media very well. Within our text, I can connect back to "Reality Bites Back" where they talk about how "The Genesis of Reality TV Racism" and "The Mammy." Within "Gender and the Media" there are chapters that speak on about Masculinities and media studies and gender reversals. You can see this in How to Get Away with Murder because this is a male-dominated field of work and the reversal into a woman and the black dominated show definitely comes off strong on the television
show.
One of my favorite things that this show does well on is that it has a very diverse cast every season. About half if not more of the main characters within the television show are people of color. This is more than most of the prime time shows that you see on television today. Every one of the characters in How to Get Away with Murder is complex, unique, and has incredible depth, which is also very stimulating to see these days. The first main character that I want to focus on is Annalise Keating who is played by the very talented Viola Davis.
Annalise Keating is one of the most powerful and refreshing characters I have seen on television to this day. Annalise Keating is completely brutal, and I love watching absolutely every minute of what she does in the show. She's scheming and does literally whatever it takes to win her cases, and this is why she is the best. It's really incredible to see a woman, be basically the best defense lawyer in the business. The show shows her at her best and at her worst.
Annalise Keating is a complete mess at some points within the show. As the viewers, we are able to see her in her at best moments and in her worst, and that isn't something you can say just about any main character in many television shows nowadays. The main characters are most often in a moral high ground over everyone else. They are good, they are honorable, and they do all the things that are perceived as "being a good person" in this modern society. Just taking a look at American comic books, you will find many more superhero's as main characters than villains or anti-heroes. There weren't too many women role models out there today. A big one in comics and new on tv is Wonder Woman. Yes, there were Super Girl and Cat Women, but I personally feel like they were just there to be there. Wonder Women was the true feminist superhero. Within Feminism and Pop Culture reading there is a section that talks about how "girls needed a positive female role model to counter the comic book status quo of violent masculinity" (Feminism and Pop Culture pg. 77) I see this connection in How to Get Away with Murder character Annalise Keating. She is a colored female in a white male dominated the field of work. Even with all her flaws I personally feel like she is a great role model for women. She is seen as a powerful being that still has her own flaws in life which we all do.
Another quick factor that I loved about Annalise Keating was that she was reviled as bisexual within the second season. The show writers never mentioned this little fact until Keating's former girlfriend and classmate reappeared. Until that point, everyone was assuming that she was straight just because she was married to a man during the first season. I think it was a great twist on heteronormativity for shows these days. Annalise Keating is tough, unforgiving and displays most traits that are traditionally considered to be masculine, but she is also incredibly vulnerable.
In my reading of Remixing Old Character Tropes on Screen there was a quote that the author used from a different book that stated "Here's the thing, we're in crisis mode as black actresses, not only in the sheer number of roles that are offered and that are out there but the quality of the roles, the quality. And therein lies the problem... -Viola Davis (Oprah's Next Chapter, 2013(Remixing Old Character Tropes on Screen pg. 40) I found this interesting because Viola Davis speaks about how the good roles are pretty scarce for African American women, and how this causes friction and competition within the community. The issue of age also comes up where there are not that many age categories for black women to be able to categorize themselves. "Black women who look a certain way and who are over a certain age are type-cast as mammies and "black ladies," which are the "controlling images" Patricia Hill Collins defines throughout her work on black feminist thought." (Remixing Old Character Tropes on Screen pg. 41) The mammy roll has been talked about within out text Reality Bites Back. In the chapter Erasing, Ethnicity, Encoding Bigotry there is a definition of what a mammy is. "The "mammy" archetype, in which Black women play fawning domestic servants, cooks, and surrogate mothers for white people, originating in minstrel theater but has haunted Black women in American media." (Reality Bites Back pg. 172) These are the roles that Viola Davis is talking about that are available for African American woman. This is why we never see African American women in influential main character roles on television.
My next character from How to Get Away with Murder will be Michael Pratt played by Aja Naomi King. Michaela Pratt is an interesting character in the big part because she's not the kind of character we really want to relate to. Annalise Keating is a basically a boss bitch and Laurel Castillo gets a lot of epic moments throughout the show as well, and even Bonnie and Rebecca get to have their interesting moments throughout the show. Michaela Pratt, on the other hand, is an awkward combination of uptight, bitchy, and status-conscious that basically none of us that watch the show want to admit that we identify with her. Michaela Pratt is uncomfortably real in everyone's eyes.
Michaela Pratt's journey throughout the seasons is important because it is a reminder that black femininity is essentially not regularly allowed the luxury of self-expression. Michaela Pratt is forced at the start of the show by social expressions. Either she's a respectable, proper, perfect, young educated black woman who does not do absolutely anything wrong, or she's a slut, a whore, and ghetto trash from the south. For Michaela Pratt in the very beginning of the show, there's basically no other option for her. Michaela Pratt is clearly one of the most emotionally unstable characters out of the group. Her responses to her and her classmates covering up of Annalise Keating husband Sam Keating's murder as well as when she is always stressing out about not having time to study for exams. Bonnie Winterbottom and Frank Delfino call her a "shooting star." They are implying that she will be the one in the group to fizzle out under the pressure of keeping the secrets. She is always laughed at by her colleagues for behaving so emotionally. She is rebuked for behaving "like a woman should."
Within the book, Reality Bites Back there is a section called "Uppity Black Girls Need Humble Pie." Throughout this section of the book, it states that Yaya an Americas Next Top Model candidate is almost the same character as Michaela Pratt. She is intelligent and beautiful and poised just like Michaela Pratt, but during her season he was portrayed as a "Bourgie Snob." (Reality Bites Back pg. 203) This is how Michaela Pratt is basically portrayed on her show How to Get Away with Murder. She is seen as a girl that checks all the boxes and comes from a wealthy family and has money. With this attitude that she puts out as being high-class, it comes off more as "uppity." This is mainly her character the first season where she is readjusting to real life. In the book Reality Bites Back they say that "When a smart, self-possessed African American woman is said to "need humble pie," the message is that this "uppity" Black person just does not know her place." (Reality Bites Back pg. 204)
One of my favorite moments of Michaela Pratt is when she is having a lunch with her former gay fiancé's mother who does not like her and thinks that she is a gold digger. I think that Michaela Pratt had enough with her former fiancé's mother hating her that she finally snapped and said this which is what I translated from the episode. "I am that girl. The one that tried to slap you from the backwater bayou, that Southern ghetto trash. I just spent a long time trying to hide her away, so I could claim the prince. Your shining black perfect son. A prince. And I did. But that girl isn't me... I'm sorry. He doesn't love me. But here's the thing: I love me. So, I'm done." (How to Get Away with Murder Season 1) This is a moment that I cherished not only just because it is essentially the first time during the whole season that we see Michaela Pratt stepping into her power role as a character. The power in this scene comes after she finally drops her mask and shows who she really is. She's not pretending to be anything other than what she really is in this scene.
Throughout this research, there is a major difference in the two main African American characters within How to Get Away with Murder. Annalise Keating is a strong Black woman and will always fight for her clients. I feel like she grows as a person throughout the season learning from the Keating Five and his coworkers. She is strong and tackles her drinking problem and with the help of her friends and grows as a great character. I think that her role as this powerful lawyer is a great role model for African American females, the television show shows us that she is great at her job but that it is okay to have a vulnerable side in life because we are all human. The show shows us that being an African American woman is hard in a white-dominated world. With Michaela Pratt, you see a stuck-up girl that is trying to make a name for herself. This changes throughout the seasons when she grows out of her façade of a high-class girl and shows that her inner beauty is way more important than her outer beauty.